The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Castle steps up under Final Four bright lights
GLENDALE, Ariz. — There were nearly 75,000 packed into the cavernous football stadium Saturday night, a crowd that included celebrities, college coaching legends, basketball Hall of Famers and UConn men’s basketball royalty.
The lights were indeed bright on the first day of the NCAA Final Four as the Madness from March leaked into April. It was a night when the reigning NCAA champion UConn would seemingly have a decided advantage over Alabama because the Huskies had been there and done that at Houston’s NFL stadium a year ago.
But as No. 1 UConn was struggling to find its bearings early in the game at State Farm Stadium, it was a 19-year-old freshman who saved the night.
Stephon Castle, UConn’s dynamic guard, scored eight of UConn’s first 10 points. Through a back-and-forth first half, Castle had 13 points, sank a pair of 3-pointers and was UConn’s best player.
“I had it going,” Castle said after the Huskies’ 8672 win.
He would finish tied with a career-high 21 points despite sitting out the last six and a half minutes with four fouls. His poise at both ends the heartbeat for a team viewed as the best in the country.
On Monday night, UConn defeated Purdue for the NCAA title. There has not been a repeat champion since 2007 and the Huskies are made this run with a considerably different team.
Yet the addition of Castle may be the most important shift from last season.
“He’s not like any other freshman,” Donovan Clingan said. “He’s out there to do whatever his team needs for him to do to win. He’s one of the best on-ball defenders that you’ll see. He puts a lot of work in. He’s the most unselfish player on this team.”
That’s a common refrain in the UConn locker room. Dan Hurley loves to point out that Castle, considered a likely NBA Draft lottery pick, is a team-first player who is unlike most highly-touted prospects.
The Huskies landed Castle, ranked in the top 10 in his recruiting class, from Georgia.
“You knew right away in the recruiting process because of how quickly and decisively he made a decision based on, like, the things that really matter: the culture, the connection with the staff, all the things that we do at UConn,” Hurley said. “Obviously he’s seen some guards have great success with us over the years, so ...
“You just knew when you recruited him. When you got to the first practice, whether you ripped him or encouraged him, everything was, ‘Yes, Coach.’ He’s such a pleaser. His value at the next level, obviously you see it on game night. A lot of NBA teams, they come through and watch us practice, where he even has the ball in his hands more, where he gets to show all the things he can do that you don’t always see on game night.”
Castle, 6-foot-6, is averaging 11 points per game. He has created shots and passed well, and his defense has been elite. But his is just 19 of 71 (26.8 percent) from the arc, which explains why Alabama seemed to dare him to shoot.
“I noticed it like the first play of the game when we were trying to run a set and the guy was guarding me in the paint,” Castle said. “I tried to take advantage of it early . ... I wouldn’t say it was motivation. I would just say it was kind of a disrespect on their end just to guard that far back. I took advantage of it early. I saw the ball go in early. I thought it started a great night for me.”
Said Hassan Diarra, “If you’re not going to guard him, he’s going to go for 20. He’s a great player. He can shoot it. He can drive it. He can pass it. He’s physical. He has so many tools. If you’re going to leave him like that, he’s going to go off.”
In the second half, Castle took a lob from Tristen Newton and dunked to cap a 7-0 run. He flexed after the dunk, the UConn student section erupted and the Huskies were up by eight.
“I just sensed that we had started to spark a run,” he said. “I was just trying to get my teammates just to have a little energy on the court. I mean, it was a good dunk. It was a great pass by TNew, so I kind of got fired up for it.”
The offensive output in the biggest game to date signals what Castle is capable of and was no doubt noticed by NBA decision makers. Castle can score, but he’s immersed himself into UConn’s deep rotation.
“He came here to win,” Newton said. “He didn’t come to score 30 or 40. But we needed him to score and he stepped up in a big way. Coming here, you know what to expect. It’s a selfless program. We run an offense and run it well, so if you want to go score 30, you might want to go to a different program. He knew what he was coming into and he’s done a great job in his role.”